Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was an American statesman who dominated foreign policy making in the 1940sand early 1950s. A specialist in international law, he held top positions in the Treasury Department in 1933. For most of 1941-53 he was a senior official in the State Department, and more responsible than anyone else --even more than his boss President Harry S. Truman--for many major policy decisions.

Acheson came under heavy attack for his policies in China and for his defense of State Department employees accused during Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist investigations in 1950-52.

After he left office in 1953 he practiced law and advised presidents of both parties. Acheson was instrumental in framing U.S. policy toward the Vietnam War, persuading Truman to dispatch aid and advisors to French forces in Indochina. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm), a strategic advisory group. In 1968 he counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam.

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Early career

Acheson was born in Middletown, Connecticut, April 11, 1893. His father was the socially prominent Episcopalian bishop of Connecticut; both parents were Canadians and he had a slight British accent and demeanor that annoyed his Anglophobic critics. They accused him with some justification of having a pro-British bias. Acheson attended Groton School and Yale College (BA 1915). At Groton and Yale he had the reputation of a partier and prankster; he was somewhat aloof but still popular with his classmates. Acheson's famous arrogance—he disdained the curriculum at Yale as focusing on memorizing subjects already known or not worth knowing more about—was early apparent. At Harvard Law School from 1915 to 1918, however, he was swept away by the intellect of professor Felix Frankfurter and finished fifth in his class.

In 1917, during wartime service in the National Guard, he married Alice Stanley. She loved painting and politics and served as a stabilizing influence during their long, traditional marriage; they had three children: David, Jane, and Mary. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, a liberals, made Acheson his clerk for two terms from 1919 to 1921.[2] In private practice in Washington he specialized in international law.

Government service

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Acheson undersecretary of the Treasury, on May 19, 1933; when the Secretary fell ill he suddenly found himself acting secretary despite his ignorance of finance. Because of his opposition to FDR's liberal plan to inflate the dollar by controlling gold prices, the conservative Acheson was forced to resign in November 1933.

With World War II on the horizon, Roosevelt brought in many prominent conservatives, including Henry Stimson at the War DepDepartment, and Acheson for a top job at the State Department, assistant secretary of state. In 1945 he was promoted to undersecretary of state, the number two position, holding it 1945-47 under President Harry S. Truman.

Cold War

As late as 1945 Acheson sought détente with the Soviet Union, which was FDR's wartime policy. He switched to Containment policy in order to stop further Soviet expansion in the face of Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe and threats to Iran. When he realized the Soviets were working outside traditional diplomatic channels, Acheson became a devoted and influential cold warrior.

Acheson promoted UNRRA and the Bretton Woods Conference and played a major role in designing the Marshall Plan. In 1946, as chairman of a special committee to prepare a plan for the international control of atomic energy, he wrote the Acheson-Lilienthal report. He resigned as undersecretary of state, June 30, 1947, and resumed his law practice.

Secretary of State, 1949-1953

On Jan. 7, 1949, Acheson was appointed secretary of state to succeed George C. Marshall, who had failed to stop the loss of China to violently anti-American Communists. Acheson operationalized containment in Europe by creating NATO, a military alliance that in fact did end further Soviet expansion in Europe, He designed the Japanese peace treaty, signed in 1951.

Korean war

Acheson's speech on January 12, 1950, before the National Press Club seemed to say that South Korea was beyond the line and that American support for the new Syngman Rhee government in South Korea would be limited. Critics later charged that Acheson's ambiguity provided Joseph Stalin and Kim Il-sung with reason to believe the US would not intervene if they invaded the South. However, evidence from Korean and Soviet archives demonstrates that Stalin and Kim's decisions were not influenced by Acheson's speech.

With the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, that country switched from a close friend of the U.S. to a bitter enemy--the two powers were at war in Korea by 1950. Critics blamed Acheson for what they called the "loss of China" and launched several years of organized opposition to Acheson's tenure; Acheson ridiculed his opponents and called this period in his outspoken memoirs "The Attack of the Primitives." Although he maintained his role as a firm anti-communist, he was attacked by various anti-communists for not taking a more active role in attacking communism in Asia. During the Korean War both he and Marshall, now serving as Secretary of Defense came under attack from Joseph McCarthy. Congressman Richard Nixon ridiculed "Acheson's College of Cowardly Communist Containment." This criticism grew very loud after Acheson refused to 'turn his back on Alger Hiss' when the latter was accused of being a Communist spy, and convicted (of perjury for denying he was a spy).

On December 15, 1950, the Republicans in the House of Representatives resolved unanimously that he be removed from office, but nothing came of it.

Kaplan, Lawrence S. The Long Entanglement: NATO's First Fifty Years (1999) online edition

Isaacson, Walter, and Evan Thomas. The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1997) 864pp; covers Acheson and colleagues Charles E. Bohlen, W. Averell Harriman, George Kennan, Robert Lovett, and John J. McCloy; excerpt and text search

Leffler, Melvyn P. "Strategy, Diplomacy, and the Cold War: the United States, Turkey, and NATO, 1945-1952" Journal of American History 1985 71(4): 807-825. in JSTOR* McGlothlen, Ronald L. Controlling the Waves: Dean Acheson and US Foreign Policy in Asia (1993) online edition

McNay, John T. Acheson and Empire: The British Accent in American Foreign Policy (2001)